Ritu Moni and Nahida Akter, who shared five wickets between them, triggered India’s slump from 74 for 0 to 108 for 4
India Women 229 for 7 (Bhatia 50, Verma 42, Moni 3-37, Akter 2-42) vs Bangladesh Women
Bangladesh opened with spin and pace and kept India’s openers on a leash at the start. The experienced offspinner Salma Khatun kicked off the proceedings and bowled four overs at one go and so did medium-pacer Jahanara Alam. The pair gave away just nine and 16 each, respectively, until that point, with the left-hander Smriti Mandhana scoring only eight off 20 balls against Khatun.
Mandhana was relatively more fluent against Alam, whom she carted for successive fours in the second over. Shafali Verma had scratched her way to a 12-ball 4 but shifted gears with the first-change Akter’s introduction. The India teen deposited the Bangladesh left-arm spinner in the arc between deep midwicket and long-on for a six and a four in the 12-run over before crunching three imperious fours against Alam to finish the powerplay at 52 for 0.
Full report to follow…
Annesha Ghosh is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @ghosh_annesha